The present disclosure relates generally to communication networks, and more particularly, to Node Port identifiers (N_Port_IDs) in a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) network.
Demands for increasing link speeds and computing speeds have driven a variety of specialized computer networking architectures. There are networking architectures, such as Ethernet, which are widely utilized for communications based on Internet Protocol (IP). There are other networking architectures, such as Fibre Channel (FC), which are widely utilized in Storage Area Networks (SANs). FCoE is a technology for sending Fibre Channel traffic over Ethernet in order to enable a single networking technology to be utilized for both IP communications and SANs.
FCoE allows Fibre Channel to leverage Ethernet networks while preserving the FC protocol. The International Committee for Information Technology and Standards (INCITS) released the standard FC-BB-5 (“Fibre Channel, Backbone-5”, Jun. 4, 2009), which covers FCoE. FC-BB-5 defines how to enable and instantiate virtual links between an end node and an FCoE Forwarder (FCF) and between FCFs.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.